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In Memory Of

Michael Lawrence Smith, age 66 of California

August 29, 1951 – February 14, 2018

Michael L. Smith passed onto his next life on February 14th, 2018 in Vallejo, CA. He was born on August 29th, 1951 to Lawrence and Winnifred (RedEagle) Smith in Sisseton, SD.

Michael loved his Native American Heritage as he proved through his work with Native American people beginning as a peer counselor at the Seattle Indian Center, a Cultural Education Coordinator for the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. It was here when he envisioned and produced the first American Indian Film Festival (AIFF) in 1975 in Seattle, WA. The AIFF became the oldest and most prominent showcase in the world for Native American talent. The American Indian Film Festival screened and showcased American Indian and Canadian First Nations media makers. The annual event went on to be sponsored by the San Francisco Indian Center and the National Congress of American Indians. In 1979 the AIFF was formally established in California and held its 42nd annual festival in November of 2017.

After he moved to California he met the woman he would spend the rest of his life with, Lucinda (Cindy) Spencer of the Navajo and Laguna Pueblo Tribe. That union gave them a daughter, Mytia. In August of 2011 Mytia married Sebastian Zavala of Quechua, Peru. Of this union Mike received another gift on May 22nd, 2016, Mayeux Zavala. Mike loved his family very much and will be missed tremendously by them. Mike’s final desire was to come home to be buried by his mother at the RedEagleCemetery in Fort Kipp, MT.

My sincere condolences Cyndi and Mytia, family & friends. Mike had a great run at life and accomplished amazing feats along with his family and friends for so many years. I’ll miss him sincerely. Love.

Michael Smith was one of our own, a Sioux Indian man and a man of excellence in all he contributed to the American Indian community of the San Francisco bay area and eventually to the world of American Indian Cinema.
I met first Michael in 1978 in San Francisco, at an awards ceremony sponsored by the Film Festival he created in 1975. I was so surprised to get an award, and as I researched the Film Festival I came to realize that Michael was Dakota and his family was from Ft. Peck.
In following the history of the Festival over the years, I came to respect the drive and mission Michael conveyed through the festival and his work. A few years ago in a publicity interview for the year’s festival, he described the event as, “a presentation to foster public truth and understanding of the social, economic, cultural, and life ways of contemporary Indian peoples. Despite a history of genocide and exploitation of our nation’s people and land base, we have persevered. We have maintained and rebuilt our nations’ infrastructure, spirit, culture, and language. This is our truth, we share it with our audiences in the coming days.”
There is a whole world off the reservation that is not often heard of, all the successes and beautiful things our people are doing. These stories and people need to be shared more with our young people. I know Michael always had a place in his heart to give the youth hope.
About 8 years ago, some of my friends and relatives wanted to attend the festival so we made a plan, took the train to San Francisco. We had an amazing time there. It was good to see Michael and visit all of his wonderful guests. After the event we had some difficulty getting a taxi. Michael said don’t worry about it I’ll give you a ride in my Dakota pony. Well the pony turned out to be his Dakota Dodge truck. We all piled in and he got us safely back to our motel.
He always showed so much dignity and respect for his people and I saw over and over the kind of self-worth in himself that you only see in the character of our traditional Dakota men.
I am thankful to have known him and I want to say to you all, he represented our people well.

It was an honor to have met Michael. He was an inspiration to everyone that has met him, with all that he did for our people. I’ll miss seeing him, especially at the film festival. My hope is that the Film Festival will continue and that there won’t be any major changes but to keep it like Michael had it, in honor of him. My thoughts and prayers for Cindy, Mytia, Sebastian and his granddaughter.
Marti